Ubuntu 12.10 has been released, sporting the rather... Interesting tagline 'Avoid the pain of Windows 8'. Two main features are that websites can now be treated as actual applications, integrating them into Unity. The divide between local and online content when searching has also been softened, which, they claim, makes it easier to find what you're looking for. On the server side, it includes the Folsom release of OpenStack, "Cinder, for block storage and Quantum, a virtual networking API. Ubuntu's Metal-as-a-Service bare-metal provisioning tool has been updated and now supports Calxeda hyperscale hardware based on ARM".

you can get a system for which the supplier is prepared to sell you Linux pre-installed. This is what you do for Windows, is it not? This is the only fair comparison, like for like, between the ease of maintenance and upkeep of desktop Linux compared with desktop Windows, BTW.

Actually, I prefer to build my own PCs. I like low noise systems, and the only way of guaranteeing both high performance and quietness is to choose the components myself. I haven't bought a ready built computer with the OS pre-installed for about 15 years.

The nice thing about Windows is that I don't have to worry about the components I'm buying, let alone get someone else to build and test the system for me. I can select the components that best fit my needs and budget and know that they'll all work with my OS.

Now, once again, the distribution you choose is important. Scientific Linux is not a general purpose, ease-of-use-focussed distribution, it is made by CERN to control the LHC I believe. Hardly what a typical desktop user wants.

In reality it's just a tweaked version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, like CentOS. I don't find its ease of use significantly different from desktop distributions like Mint.

Before someone recommended Scientific Linux I tried Linux Mint, Mint Debian Edition, Ubuntu, Fedora, and a couple of others. Scientific Linux was by far the easiest one to get running on my Thinkpad. Like I mentioned, it was the only one where basic features like sleep mode worked properly after installation.

Even in Ubuntu, things like power management, fan control and the trackpoint still needed to be configured using config files. In Windows there are graphical utilities to tweak all those things quickly and easily.

On my main desktop I have Linux Mint installed, but that hasn't been trouble free either. Sound doesn't work reliably and I've had updates cause all kinds of glitches.

"you can get a system for which the supplier is prepared to sell you Linux pre-installed. This is what you do for Windows, is it not? This is the only fair comparison, like for like, between the ease of maintenance and upkeep of desktop Linux compared with desktop Windows, BTW.

Actually, I prefer to build my own PCs. I like low noise systems, and the only way of guaranteeing both high performance and quietness is to choose the components myself. I haven't bought a ready built computer with the OS pre-installed for about 15 years.

The nice thing about Windows is that I don't have to worry about the components I'm buying, let alone get someone else to build and test the system for me. I can select the components that best fit my needs and budget and know that they'll all work with my OS.

Now, once again, the distribution you choose is important. Scientific Linux is not a general purpose, ease-of-use-focussed distribution, it is made by CERN to control the LHC I believe. Hardly what a typical desktop user wants.

In reality it's just a tweaked version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, like CentOS. I don't find its ease of use significantly different from desktop distributions like Mint.

Before someone recommended Scientific Linux I tried Linux Mint, Mint Debian Edition, Ubuntu, Fedora, and a couple of others. Scientific Linux was by far the easiest one to get running on my Thinkpad. Like I mentioned, it was the only one where basic features like sleep mode worked properly after installation.

Even in Ubuntu, things like power management, fan control and the trackpoint still needed to be configured using config files. In Windows there are graphical utilities to tweak all those things quickly and easily.

On my main desktop I have Linux Mint installed, but that hasn't been trouble free either. Sound doesn't work reliably and I've had updates cause all kinds of glitches. "

If you "build your own", then you must expect to be on your own.

This has no relevance whatsoever to the topic ... which is easiest to maintain and keep malware-free (running on a system on which it came pre-installed), user-focussed desktop Linux or user-focussed desktop Windows?

The answer is clearly, and unequivocally, the former. User-focussed desktop Linux is by far easier to upkeep, maintain and keep secure.